The Gong echoed across the grand stage. Countless Pululus audiences roared and cheered for the final event. Akong towered above them all on the upper floor, spotlights illuminating him. With a wave of his hand, the crowd stopped cheering to give him silence as he prepared a speech.

"My fellow Pululus, I, High Priest Akong, have a few things to say!" Announced the High Priest, the Pululus roared again and came to another abrupt silence to let him speak, "Our goals... To be reunited with our Devine Savior... Has been difficult to accomplish. However... Finally... We are finally just one step closer to achieving our goal! And so, let the final game of Running Man survive... Commence!"

The Horns echoed across the stadium as the Pululus cheered once more. One of Akong's curates began to introduce the players of the final match.

"Introducing our first player!" She calls a holographic recording of Paula's journey throughout the game played for the audience to view. "He has been the weakest player throughout the game and was voted as the most likely to get eliminated, however, through sheer tenacity, and a tremendous amount of Plot Armour, he has made it to the finals. The Master of the Golden Herb, Pala!"

Spotlights shone towards an opening gate where the impala walked towards the diamond-shaped stage.

Next was a video recording of Kuga and his greatest feats to show his strength.
"The next player, who has captured the hearts of Countless Pululus, the strongest warrior of the bars tribe and the strongest member of the Running Men, Kuga Superpaws!"

As Kuga approaches the Arena, countless of Pululus cheered for him. They held up banners of him, wooden sign boards with his name written on him and headbands that had his face printed on them.

"Next is our third player!" A video recording of Liu played for the audience this time.
"He achieved the win of two matches with his high intelligence! He is the brains and the leader of the Running Men, Legs of Steel Liu!"

Liu lept onto one side of the diamond-shaped arena where Kuga and Pala occupied their sides.

"Leader? I didn't know Liu was the leader?" Pala pointed out.

"I don't even think of myself as the leader" Liu comments before Kuga adds his words.

"I thought it was Yuu?"

"Nah, I don't think Yuu has any interest in being a leader" Pala states and Liu agrees.

"Paula's right. Yuu wouldn't want that. He'll say it's too much work. That being said, should we have a leader?" As Liu asked, Kuga and Pala remained silent, looking as clueless as him.

"What about Lonky? As Leader?" There was a brief silence as Kuga made that suggestion. Then immediately they burst into loud laughter, almost mockingly.

"Nice one" The bug says before the Curate introduces the fourth player then their eyes narrow as the final opening gate.

"Introducing the last player! Controlling a suit of Steel and Power, he made an incredible feat by defeating the first Gatekeeper effortlessly! Though his Suit of Iron has been breached and destroyed by the Bandaged Man, he still came out strong and resilient. Who is he, you ask? We'll, his elegance and beauty are legendary. You know him as... Charming Gold! "

"It seems I have been missed by so much" Charming Gold spoke with a sultry smile. Though the running men sneered at him in anger, the crowd of Pululus cheered him on.
"Ladies and Gentlemen..." his voice echoed in the now silent room.
"Are you Ready?" As he asked, the crowded road was even louder than before.
"ARE you Ready? IT'S... Running t-"

"Charming Gold!" Liu shouted, interrupting him. Charming Gold glared at the bug with gritted teeth for interrupting his catchphrase.
"After we helped you in the second round, this is how you repay us?! By eliminating five of my friends?!"

"Ha," The peacock scoffs, crossing his arms. "Well, if you wanna know... I got the Giraffe eliminated because he was being annoyed and would stop kissing my butt. I just couldn't take his incessant talking!" The peacock elaborated by dramatically clutching his temples.
"As for Miyo... Well," He smirks sinisterly at them. "Don't tell me her elimination hasn't been beneficial to you?"

"What?! How dare you assume that!" Lou voiced out their thoughts but Charming Gold scoffs again.

"Am I wrong Liu?" He probed. "Her little device has had you guys chasing your tails by nullifying your powers did it not? I took care of that for you. You know, got my hands dirty so you heroes wouldn't have to" As he continues to speak the running men only got more offended and angered at him.
"Haha. Oh! I took o fault in that little penguin. He got eliminated by his incompetence"

"What about Yuu, then?" Pala spoke up this time.

Charming Gold didn't speak. After a full minute of not speaking, the audience just staring at him and wondering why Charming Gold hadn't moved yet, he finally responded. He clenched both fists and looks down at his feet.

" Yuu... Yamada... Yamada... Yamada~" He repeated continuously in a sing-song voice. When he finally looked back at Liu, they were confused to see Charming Gold smiling widely then he started laughing, clutching his face with one hand as if he was going insane.

" What's... Wrong with him? " Pala asked but none of them had an answer for it.

"Oh..." He inhales after laughing so hard then exhales before finally speaking clearly.
"I can't say I didn't want to eliminate him, but for a moment, just for a moment... Maybe he and I really aren't so different"

"Keep dreaming! Yuu is nothing like you!" Liu retorts but Charming Gold's smile doesn't waver.

"To your eyes, yes, but to me... We are... When I was Iron Beast, no one knew who I was. No one knew what I had done and even some of your friends looked up to me and thought I was cool. That feeling must be what you feel all the time. To hide your true identity and become what the people think you are. They think Yuu is scary, then he will act scary, they think he's violent, then he will be violent, if they think he's a nice guy, well, he'll be nice. Think about it. No one knows what he looks like, for all you know, maybe he's just pretending to be what you see him as! Who knows if he has a dark agenda of his own? You never know! No one will! Heck, not even Yuu himself!"

Liu clenches his fists this time along with Kuga. They knew Charming Gold was insane. They also knew what he was saying could never be the truth since they already knew what Yuu looked like and what he valued the most: Their friendship.

"Anyways, " Charming Gold sighs, realizing Liu and the rest aren't understanding his words, he proceeds with the topic. ", I had no plans of Eliminating Yuu because I was sure Metronome would take care of him after that match. Though I doubt they could kill him"

"What? How do you know about Metronome?!" Yuu asked but Charming Gold faked a gasp and then smirked as if he intended to do it all along.

"Oops, said something I shouldn't have," He tells him then continues. "When I tossed Miyo and had her eliminated, only then I realized I screwed up because Yuu was there. And when I looked back, he was already tearing through my strongest Armour as if it was cardboard. Luckily though, The Gatekeeper realized he was too dangerous and eliminated him and his girlfriend first. Lucky me"

"Lucky indeed... Because if he was here... We wouldn't stop him from doing whatever he plans to do with you" Liu warns.

"I'd like to see him try...!"

"Why are you even here" Kuga bellows, his fist ready to punch someone.
"When we saw you last time, you were dead"

Charming Gold planned a witty remark but Akong's voice cut him off and gathered everyone's attention.

"If you wish to know, he's here because of me!" Said the High Priest. "We were dead for sure but I resurrected him and gave him a second chance"

"Why would you do that? Do you know the chaos he's done?" Liu inquired.

"Does that mean Charming Gold is Akong's lackey?" Pala inquired as well.

"Perhaps. Though, he's quite full of himself for a lackey" The tiger agreed and Charming Gold spoke through gritted teeth.

"I am not his lackey!" Said the Peacock. He looked over at Akong to see him smirking at him, he's resting on the back of his hand liking the idea of having him as his lackey.

Charming Gold grew furious upon realizing this but remained silent.

"I admit, I find your chit-chat amusing, unfortunately, we are running out of time. Let us now begin the final stage of Running Man Survival! The winner will achieve ultimate freedom and open the gateway" As Akong says this, the Arena rumbles and then lowers several feet, making contact with the lowest point of the Stadium.

Then, the Arena and the ground lit up in lines of blue light, powered by the for points of the diamond-shaped arena where floating diamond pillars erupted from each point. The centre of the Arena glowed in red lines, for the symbol of a double triangle, one point-up, one point-down.

"The final four must light up the four pillars to wake the final gatekeeper! Now, please get to each of your positions"

The running men nodded at each other and stood on one point of the Arena with Charming Gold on the fourth one.

"Now, activate the Gate key!" The curate announced and behind each of them appeared four blue holographic screens with the same triangle symbol as the Arena.

Charming Gold looks over Akong as if awaiting further instruction. The high Priest smiled and simply nodded. The peacock nodded back and, reaching for the screen he twisted it with his hand the diamond-shaped pillar lit up and then illuminated in a beacon of light, mesmerizing the audience.

"Kuga..." Liu called out to the tiger, voice uncertain.

Kuga looks at the blue screen on his side of the Arena then back to Liu.
"I don't feel good about this Liu..."

"Me too" Liu conceded.
"Charming Gold and Akong? I feel like something bad will happen"

"Liu! Can you hear us?!" A familiar voice echoes across the Arena, coming from Liu's wrist. He quickly moved it closer to his mouth and spoke.

"Miyo? Is that you guys?" Liu asked.

"It's us! We're safe!" Popo shouted from the background.

"We found little Suitcase here in the tunnels" Yuu spoke through the watch this time.

"Why didn't you tell me you had a cute companion Liu?!" Salena squeals in the background.

"I'm so glad you guys are alright" Liu sighed in relief.

"Liu, you need to listen" Miyo says with a serious tone. "DO NOT open the gateway no matter what!"

"Don't open the gateway?" Liu repeated, looking confused until the second pillar illuminated in a beacon of light. They looked over and saw Pala already turning the holographic screen.

"Wait... Don't activate the gateway or activate the gateway?" Pala asks bashfully.

"Kuso!" Yuu was heard cursing in his tribe's language.

"Why don't you want us to open the gateway? What did you find out?" Liu asks again.

"It was Akong that kidnapped us but not because to punish us, because he wanted to use us to achieve his goal!" Miyo explains as the audience becomes silent, overhearing her words.
"A long time ago, Akong used powers he harnessed from the Seed of the Soul Trees fruit and used it to enslave the world! The Kings and rulers across the world joined forces and managed to stop Akong along with the help of Charming Gold, who locked Akong away with a seal"

"A seal? Wait, Charming Gold helped?!" Liu quickly darts to charming Gold who smirks at his reaction.

"I wasn't always bad you know" Charming Gold says before Yuu shouts from the watch.

"You just wanted to lessen the competition!"

"It's good to hear your voice, Yuu. Missed me?" Charming Gold says with a mocking tone.

"I'm gonna murder you, Peacock!"

"Oohh~ So scary"

"Bestie calm down!" Salena's voice was heard followed by the sound of struggle as if they were trying to hold Yuu back as well as calm him down before Liu asked Miyi a question while looking up at Akong.

"If Akong was sealed then why is he here?"

"When we awakened Ulcus, the seal, that kept Akong locked away, weakened and he managed to escape. Fortunately, his powers were separated from him by the Guardians of the Seal which were the Gatekeepers we defeated. The final four Pillars are the seal that contains Akong's powers but can only be opened by the ones that defeated all of the Gatekeepers, which is you guys"

There was a static noise coming from the watch before Lonky's voice was heard this time.

"That's why the Gatekeepers were trying to stop us and why they keep telling us we screwed up! They were stopping us from getting Akong's powers!" Lonky shouts as the audience of Pululus now has anxiety and disbelief etched on their faces.

"That means... This game is nothing but a ruse! He's just using us so he can get his powers and rule the world again!"

"That's right!" Miyo agrees. "You need to prevent the four pillars from being opened!"

The previously shocked Pululus then began to whisper at each other. Whispers turned to loud murmurs before all of them were now shouting in anger towards Akong. Liu and the rest may not understand what they are saying but they are displeased.

The curates tried to calm the crowd but it was no use. Then, Akong started laughing. He laughed so hard that the crowd became silent as they watched him.

"So... just because these insignificant fools know the truth, you think you could stop me?" Akong leans forward to show off his triumphant smile.
"Nothing can stop me! Not the Round Table! Not Charming Gold! Not even the stupid guardians of the seal! I OWN THIS WORLD!"

Liu aimed his pistol at the high priest.
"Not anymore you don't"

"You crazy little imp! We'll stop you!" Pala shouts then furiously starts shaking his staff.

"We won't let you have your way!" Kiga shouts as well.

"Are you sure?" Akong says with a smile.

Then a shadow darkens over Liuas he aimed. He looked to his die to see Charming Gold towering over him. With a punch, Liu went flying back towards Kiga where he quickly caught him.

"Are you alright?" Asked the tiger as Liu wiped off pink blood from the side of his lips.

"I'm fine..."

As they looked back at Charming Gold to stop him, it was already too late. The Peacock had activated the third pillar and was shining brighter than the others. Only one pillar remains the one behind Kuga Liu and Pala.

"What are you doing?! Haven't you been listening to Miyo's words?!" Liu shouts at the Peacock but, for once, there is no more mocking or tease in Charming Golds' face. He was no longer trying to instigate Liu or the others. His eyes were empty, almost soulless. He was now serious.

"What's happening?" Yuu asked.

"... Charming Gold just opened the third Gateway"

"WHAT?!" Yuu and the rest of the group's voice shout from the watch as Akong laughs again.

"Don't you get it? I'm in charge of this game! It's not over until I say it is!" He shouts at them then smirks, eyes glowing red along with the jewel on his forehead.
"It's... Running Time..."